Johnnie Hattan ran Johnnies DX service station at the corner of Chestnut and Sixth
streets from the 1950's until the middle 1960's. The site is now occupied by the Minonk Police Station.
This picture was taken in 1961.
Johnnie was a gregarious guy who actually washed the car windows when you filled up with gas. He
also had gumball machines and pop coolers. This was before vending machines became popular.
One of his most unique machines was an electric meter machine. You put a dime in the machine and then
grabbed the metal handle and try to turn it as far as you can. The farther you turned the handle the
more electric volts would go surging through your hand and arm. Not many people were able to pull the
handle all the way down without getting electrocuted. Obviously, this was also the days before
OSHA and all the other government regulatory agencies.
